ARMED ROBBER ARRESTED; SHOOTING RANGE TEMPORARILY CLOSED

THE HARTFORD COURANT

An armed robber is arrested in Haddam, a shooting range is temporarily closed in Wallingford, and a Middletown school is saved from closure.

REGIONAL:

Daily Nominated Again: State Sen. Eileen M. Daily received a rousing nomination for a ninth term last Monday from Democratic delegates at the 33rd Senate District nominating convention. Daily, of Westbrook, was the unanimous choice of the nearly 50 delegates from the 12-town district gathered at the Sage American Grill in Chester. Daily was nominated by Terry Gavigan, who said Daily, in the 16 years since her election in 1992, has demonstrated "the ability to anticipate problems and the ability to accept a challenge and see it through." Gavigan said brings "town hall experience" and a "practical and pragmatic approach," to her role as a state legislator.

MIDDLETOWN:

No Schools Will Close: After a contentious debate that split along party lines, the board of education last Tuesday approved a budget that will cut bus monitors, teachers and a slew of proposed positions throughout the district - but close no schools.

The vote to approve the $69.5 million budget was 6-3. The board's three Republican members - Sheila Daniels, Corinne Gill and Barbara Weiss - voted against the budget. The budget, all board members agreed, will be painful given that $3.2 million had to be cut from the superintendent's original proposal. The adopted budget cuts half the district's bus monitors and lunch aides, six paraprofessionals, a world language teacher and two librarians at the elementary schools, a truancy officer at the middle school, and two teachers for the PROBE program, which targets high-achieving students.

Army Site Chosen? City officials believe the Army Corps of Engineers, having been turned away from pristine Freeman Road, has settled on a 50- to 60-acre site off River Road for its regional training base.

The property is part of a 400-acre swath of woodland that Connecticut Light & Power Co. owns. The site is opposite the NRG power plant and next to the former feldspar mine where Kleen Energy LLC is building a $250 million power plant. It is north of the Pratt & Whitney plant. The planned 273,000-square-foot training center would replace seven Army Reserve and Connecticut National Guard facilities that are slated to close.

CROMWELL:

Budget Approved: The $24.95 million education budget passed last Tuesday, after a tie vote on May 10 sent the proposal back to voters a second time.

The budget passed 651-424, with about 11 percent of the registered voters casting ballots during the daylong vote. The education budget represents a $1.2 million, or roughly 5 percent, increase over current spending. Voters previously approved the $13.02 million government budget and the $3.79 million debt payment fund, bringing the total 2008-09 town budget to $41.76 million. That represents an increase of about $1.8 million, or 4.6 percent, over current spending.

Subdivision Nears Approval: A 2-year-old plan to build 48 homes in the northwest corner of town is close to being approved. The developers, Norman and Kenneth Nadeau of Berlin, submitted a site plan for the subdivision to the planning and zoning commission last Wednesday.

The project, which is off North Road near the Rocky Hill line, has received approval from the inland wetlands commission and had previously received an approval by the planning and zoning commission in concept, said Town Planner Craig Minor. All public hearings on the plans were held when the concept plans were first proposed in 2007, Minor said.

The development falls under the town's "conservation subdivision" guidelines, which allows denser lots than the 25,000-square-foot minimum, if at least half the land is preserved as open space. The 48 lots are each about 15,000 square feet, or about a third of an acre. The North Road parcel is 77.5 acres, so at least 38 acres will be kept as open space. Minor said the land is on the Mattabesset River, and will likely be donated to the town as a park. He said the subdivision is one of the largest the town has seen in the past 20 years.

PORTLAND:

Town Off The Hook: After a recent state audit of the town's $39 million middle/high school project, the town faced the possibility of having to pay back nearly $5 million in state funds because its projected enrollment figure of 1,070 students had not been met. State law requires that local towns and school districts have an approved referendum for school construction projects in place, before the state begins to consider reimbursement for its share of a project. Once the specific project becomes eligible for state aid, a host of variables - including projected enrollment - figure into the final percentage awarded.

But it looks as though the town will be able to keep the money, thanks to help from state legislators. State Sen. Eileen M. Daily, D-Westbrook, and state Rep. Jim O'Rourke, D-Cromwell, were able to include language in a school construction bill to codify a specific projected enrollment figure for the Portland facility. If the bill is approved by Gov. M. Jodi Rell, it will be made into a law and the town and its taxpayers will be precluded from having to return the funds.

Firm Moves To Portland: In business, as in trash heaps, plastic outlasts paper. The town of Portland might take comfort in that fact, along with the Middletown-area injection-molding industry.

Amid a boom in demand for surgical equipment and medical devices, ProMold Plastics, a longtime Cromwell plastics manufacturing firm, has relocated to the Portland building formerly occupied by Sweet Waverly Printing Co. The move to the 43,000-square-foot factory represents something of a business coup for ProMold. The company has more than doubled its warehouse, office and manufacturing space, now in the Brownstone Industrial Park beneath the Arrigoni Bridge, which connects Middletown and Portland. And it's a coup for the town. ProMold's move last month came nearly three years to the day after Sweet Waverly - which was one of Portland's largest and oldest employers - abruptly closed its doors, laid off its entire workforce and became the target of a protracted legal effort by the state to recover unpaid benefits and wages for former workers.

DURHAM:

Town Purchases Land: For Lainy Melvin and other members of the senior citizens board, the creation of a senior/community center in town has been a dream for 10 years.

Last Monday, the board of selectmen took the first step toward making it happen, endorsing the purchase of 7 acres of open land at Meeting House Hill Road and Route 17 for $395,000. The property is owned by Cuomo Construction. Several steps remain. The board of finance must approve the expenditure, then there's a public hearing, followed by a town meeting, and then, finally, a referendum on the purchase, probably on July 1. First Selectwoman Laura Francis said the town won't start construction for at least another year to let the economic climate improve and give people involved with the project a chance to plan.

Shooting Range Closed: Pasquale "Pat" DiNatale has been dogging state agencies for months about bullets that have periodically struck homes in the Tri-Mountain Road area of town - a longstanding problem that he and others are convinced is linked to a shooting range about a mile away. Since the late 1990s, large-caliber rounds have struck at least 18 houses and properties. The state police in 1999 concluded that the Blue Trail Range & Gun Store in Wallingford was the "most likely" source.

On Wednesday, DiNatale won an important concession: The state Department of Environmental Protection asked Blue Trail's owner to halt all firing on the 200-yard rifle range. The DEP also closed the nearby Tri-Mountain State Park in Durham and the portion of the Mattabesset Trail that runs through it.

EAST HADDAM:

Walter Wants Raise: Be careful what you wish for, especially during budget season.

That is what Democrats are telling Republican First Selectman Mark Walter, who urged residents to reject the proposed $28.5 million town budget because Walter is now convinced it is too big. If the budget goes, they say, so does your raise.

"If it's truly a difficult budget year, then I think we should all have to bear the burden, most especially the first selectman," said Matt Budzik, a member of the board of finance and the head of the local Democratic party. "If he thinks it's time to tighten the belt, let him start with his own.

"The proposed budget calls for a $7,000 salary hike for Walter, from about $63,000 a year to about $70,000. A town employee salary study conducted by the former administration - led by a Democrat, Walter noted - called for the first selectman's raise, as well as two others.

HADDAM:

Local Man Arrested: State police arrested a local man Wednesday evening in connection with an armed robbery at a Tylerville gas station that prompted officials to lock down two schools in the afternoon. Eli Suciu, 53, of 206 Saybrook Road in the Higganum section, was charged with multiple felony robbery and weapons counts and was arraignment last Thursday in Superior Court in Middletown.

Suciu, who police said was in possession of the automatic weapon used in the robbery, was taken into custody shortly before 7 p.m. Thursday near his apartment. Police said they traced the vehicle used in the robbery to a local address. The man, later identified as Suciu, was arrested on Boulder Dell Road, a residential dead-end street behind the apartment building.

Budget Squeaks By: Voters narrowly adopted a $7.7 million town budget by a 32-30 show-of-hand vote at a town meeting last Wednesday, barely defeating a push by local emergency services members to sink the plan.

Members of the fire and ambulance squads voted against the budget after lamenting the finance board's decision to cut $70,000 that was to be used to buy a new police rescue boat. "We are stuck now with an inflatable boat that can barely hold all of our guys, not to mention our rescue equipment and whoever we pull from the Connecticut River," said Jack DiMauro, a 12-year firefighter.

The $7.7 million government budget will fund the hiring of two extra town employees - a planner and a road worker - and a $40,000 gift to a local land trust to buy and conserve a Haddam Neck farm. The current town budget is $6.4 million.

OLD SAYBROOK:

Boat Used In Rescue: Volunteer firefighters used a boat recently loaned to the department by the Island Cove Marina to help extinguish a fire that erupted May 17 on a boat docked at the Oak Leaf Marina, 218 Ferry Road.

A 44-foot Sea Line boat at the end of the dock was engulfed in flames when firefighters arrived around 3:50 a.m. About 20 firefighters responded, using three firetrucks and the boat to extinguish the blaze. There were no injuries. The Old Saybrook fire marshal's office is investigating the cause of the blaze.

CLINTON:

Residents OK Budget: Residents approved a $41.3 million town and school budget for 2008-09 at referendum May 14. The $28.9 million school budget and the $12 million town budget were voted on separately. The school budget, which increases spending by $1.1 million, passed on a 572-371 vote. The town budget, an increase of $372,000, passed 622-320.The board of finance will meet Monday to set the tax rate, which is expected to rise to 20.86 mills from 20.26 mills.

Boy's Father Arrested: Among the go-karts, minibikes, remote-controlled planes, jet skis and children's toys in Bret Haughwout's garage at his Clinton home, police said they found firearms - including a banned assault weapon - and illegal fireworks, according to court records released last Wednesday.

The discovery led to the arrest this week of Haughwout, 43, whose 14-year-old son, Christian, was charged by police last month with taking to school a doctored disposable camera that emitted electrical shocks. Haughwout's lawyer, Norman A. Pattis, argued that the latest arrest is retaliation for lawsuits the family recently filed over Christian's arrest and his suspension from The Morgan School.

MADISON:

Sewage System OK'd: A state hearing officer has again recommended approval of a proposed sewage treatment system for Madison Landing, despite recent testimony depicting oversight problems for such systems. The criticism was made in testimony from Susan Peterson, an expert hired by environmentalists trying to stop the luxury condo project. Peterson's criticism focused on government's ability to maintain oversight and act against the property owner should there be pollution outbreaks.

The hearing officer, in her latest decision, questioned Peterson's credentials and her lack of familiarity with the particular system proposed by developer Leyland Alliance. Residents fighting to stop the project said they will again challenge the findings. Final approval rests with Gina McCarthy, commissioner of the state Department of Environmental Protection.